Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8318847 | Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | 2018 | 25 Pages |
Abstract
The sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka) commonly undergoes aestivation in response to high water temperatures. This process is accompanied by tissue regression and body mass reduction. Previous studies have suggested that apoptosis may play a role in the tissue remodeling that occurs during aestivation, although this has not definitively been shown. To investigate this hypothesis, the present study used A. japonicus as a model organism to examine cell loss through apoptosis in intestinal degeneration during aestivation. Apostichopus japonicus individuals were collected from Yellow Sea (N 36° 05â² 44.87â³, E 120° 31â² 58.51â³), China in April 2016 and split into two groups. Aestivation was induced in the experimental group by incubation at 25 °C. This resulted in a significant decrease in body mass and increased evidence of intestinal degeneration in hematoxylin and eosin, Hoechst 33342, and in situ TUNEL analyses of tissue sections. Along with further Hoechst 33342 analysis using intestinal cell smears, these results showed that A. japonicus intestinal cell apoptosis occurred soon after the initial temperature increase, with most apoptotic events completing within 20 days. Transcriptional quantification of the Ajcaspase-8 (CASP8) and Ajcaspase-3 (CASP3) apoptotic genes demonstrated that their expression was significantly elevated at the beginning of the experiment but was decreased at later stages of aestivation. The results of this study strongly suggest that apoptosis is involved in the intestinal regression of A. japonicus during aestivation, and play important role in understanding fundamental cellular events in tissue regression under environmental stress.
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Authors
Ke Xu, Qiuhan Yu, Jianshe Zhang, Zhenming Lv, Wandong Fu, Tianming Wang,